David Bennett explains how Paul McCartney came up with the guitar part for Michelle.

Welcome to episode 11 of UnBeatled, a channel where we take a deep dive into every single song The Beatles ever recorded, unpicking the music, the lyrics, the cultural context at the time, and the impact the song had on the band's success in the UK and the world.

In this episode, @DavidBennettPiano and Beatles aficionado David Stark delve into "Michelle", a song that featured on their 1965 album 'Rubber Soul'.

The song began life as a jazzy guitar piece that Paul McCartney used to play at parties to impress girls. However, it wasn't completed until years later when the band were a song short for their upcoming album and John Lennon suggested finishing it. Paul used the Gallic-sounding guitar line as the basis for the lyrics, enlisting their friend's wife who taught French at school to finish the words.

Despite never being a single, the song has become a firm favourite for balladeers which has resulted in it becoming one of the most covered songs of all time.

Sit back and watch the history, the music and the trivia before listening to the song in full on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5By7Pzgl6TMuVJG168VWzS?si=b6e87ec314724855